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break on through to the other side!

I live about 500 feet from the Tammany Trace: an old rail bed converted to biking trail. Its great, but to get there I used to have to load my bike into the truck and go down the road to a trail head to get at it. The reason being, Abita highway 36 has no shoulder on which to ride. And if you ride bikes in louisiana, you know you’re fair game for autos.

I’ve been contemplating how to bridge the drainage ditch in the back of the property for about a year now so I could make my way to it via cycle and access the Trace without my pick-up truck. Like Jethro Bodine, I figgered and figgered until I came up with a good plan. I talked to my neighbor to get permission to cross the back corner of her property to get to the street leading to the sleepy little neighborhood next door. I had kept an old salvaged timber from the barn that blew down in Katrina and placed it across the wet divide. Now, in five minutes, I can peddle lazily on a safe route to the Trace! If I wanted to, I could actually go to the grocery store by bike, or I could head to downtown Covington for a Barq’s and po-boy. Sweet.

above: the bridge to everywhere!

In just ten minutes, if I go west, I can get to the Trace bridge over the Bogue Falaya River, just east of downtown Covington. On a week day at five o’clock in the afternoon you can sit on the bridge and listen to the bustling car traffic in the distance while enjoying the gentle meandering of the river through its sandy banks.

prairiedog,
i gotta see you crossing over myself, how long is that timber, i’ll keep an eye out for a second! if you allow camping in your back 40 i might be tempted to come over bike in hand to try your new route. possumhugs to ms candi
peace and love
bt

I agree with Niki. It would seem scary riding a bike over the narrow plank, or even carrying your bike over it. Although, I applaud your industry and pursuit of a non polluting and “hot-body” method of transportation, please find a wider solution. or… You might decide to go the other way and make the plank narrower and narrower, until you find yourself acquiring fame throughout the country by riding wires across alligator infested waters. 🙂